In response to an alleged coup attempt in November, a West African delegation headed by the presidents of Senegal and Ghana arrived in Sierra Leone on Saturday to establish the framework for a “security mission.”
Armed assailants engaged in combat with security personnel on November 26 after breaking into a military armoury, two barracks, two prisons, and two police stations.
Authorities believed there had been a coup attempt by members of the armed forces, and before they could retake control, twenty-one people had died and hundreds of prisoners had escaped.
The violence sparked fears of another coup in West Africa, where Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Guinea have all experienced putsches since 2020.
A recent summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) launched the delegation to “facilitate the deployment of a security mission to Sierra Leone to help stabilise the country”.
“After the heinous attempt to overthrow the democratically elected government on November 26, ECOWAS considered that the region must be protected and decided to send a stabilisation mission to Sierra Leone,” the country’s Foreign Minister Timothy Kabba said in a radio interview late Friday.
He insisted that the ECOWAS force would not be a military intervention, noting similar forces in Gambia and Guinea Bissau.
“We have a very competent army that suppressed the insurgents — in no way does this impinge on Sierra Leone’s sovereignty,” Kabba said.
